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CBI Approaches Interpol To Locate Nirav Modi

Officials said the CBI approached the Interpol with a request for issuing a ‘diffusion notice’. 



Pedestrians walk past a branch of Punjab National Bank in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
Pedestrians walk past a branch of Punjab National Bank in Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

The Central Bureau of Investigation approached the Interpol to locate billionaire jewellery designer Nirav Modi and his family who had left the country in the first week of January, weeks before the scam was reported to the agency, officials said.

CBI approached the Interpol with a request for issuing Diffusion Notice which is aimed at locating an individual.

“This (diffusion) is less formal than a notice but is also used to request the arrest or location of an individual or additional information about a police investigation. A diffusion is circulated directly by an NCB (CBI in this case) to the member countries of their choice, or to the entire INTERPOL membership and is simultaneously recorded in Interpol Information System,” according to the Interpol website.

The CBI was confident about getting a location of Modi and his family by today, they said.

Modi, who was alleged to have carried out fraudulent transactions worth over Rs 11,400 crore in Punjab National Bank, had left the country in the first week of January.

The 46-year old, who holds an Indian passport, left India on Jan. 1, while his brother Nishal, a Belgian citizen, departed from the country on the same day.

Modi's wife Ami, a U.S. citizen, left on Jan. 6 and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali jewellery chain, left on Jan. 4, the officials said.

The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate have approached the government seeking revocation of passports of Modi and Choksi.